Haunting Present
by SarcasticEnigma
Summary: COMPLETE! SVU Detective McKay is rushed into County with a gunshot wound with her partner, Detective Harper, close behind. What memories will she unknowingly bring to the surface for one Dr. John Carter? R&R!
1. The Initial Rush

**_A/N: _**Wrote this on a whim when I got home when it came to me during my walk home from a long, boring day at school. This takes place during out current season (11). As we all know, I don't own the characters. The only characters I own are Karen and Harper. Enjoy!

_**Haunting Present**_

_**Chapter 1: The Initial Rush**_

"What have we got?" Carter shouted as he saw a woman being pulled out of the Ambulance on a Gurney; she was unconscious and bleeding heavily. A man jumped out behind the Paramedics and followed them inside. Frank almost kicked him out until he flashed his badge at him, he was cop. _Probably needs to read this girl her rights or something._

"Female, Officer Karen McKay, 28 years of age. GSW to the chest." Morales informed Carter and Luka as they banged into the ER.

"She's a cop?" Carter asked a little shocked. She looked too young to be an officer; he just thought she was some teenage puck who was shot in a gang.

"Pulse Ox is low, 82 and BP is 90/50." Pamela finished for Morales. "That's right; she's SVU." She said going back to Carter's question as Ray, Abby and Neela joined them. "This is her partner, Harper." She said pointing to the officer that was following them as the doctors took the officer into a Trauma room.

"One, two, three." Carter counted as they placed Karen on the bed.

"Pulse is weak." Ray informed everyone. "Let's spin a Crit right away." He suggested almosting sounding hopeful, as if he thought that was wrong.

"Airway's blocked." Luka said as he tried to intubate her. "Number 8 ET tube. What's her BP?"

"Hold on..." Haleh said from a monitor. She could feel Luka's eyes bearing down on her as she was figuring out the girl's BP. "Pulse Ox is holding at 82."

"That's why I'm tubing her." Luka said trying again as Haleh moved to another monitor and around Neela who came to his side as always. She loved to watch Luka work; as she told Abby, she had a thing for teachers. Abby was in the room as it was and she cracked a small smile at Neela's behavior. "Get me a blood pressure."

"Chest Tube Tray?" Ray asked again with his hopeful tone.

"No, start a Central Line." Carter corrected him and Ray went to work.

"BPs holding at 90/50." Haleh said a little late.

"Give me 4 units of O neg, hang two on the Rapid Infuser."Luka ordered while still struggling a bit while trying to intubate Karen. That was unusal, Luka had been intubating for so long it'd been awhile since he'd had trouble. So, in light of that, he had Neela finish the job while he moved to help Carter find the bullet.

"Give me some Cricoid Pressure." Neela said having as much trouble intubating as Luka had.

"You ok over there, Neela?" Sam asked from behind. Neela looked back momentarily at her but returned to the girl's mouth. After a little more struggling, she succeeded in intubating Karen.

"I got it." She informed moving around to look at a monitor next to Haleh, but close to Luka to not get lost.

"Ok, start the central line now." Carter said again to Ray.

"Betadine and a Sterile Drape." Ray said moving around to the opposite side of Carter as they worked to find the bullet in the fading cop's chest.

"BPs dropping: 70/50, Pulse is 120." Lydia alerted them as a monitor beeped.

"Squeeze in two liters and prepare for a Subclavian." Luka rushed as the beeping continued rapidly.

"Send a Trauma Panel, type and cross for 4, and get X-ray in here for a chest. And a one shot IVP." Carter said to Lydia. She nodded and left to get everything. "If we don't find this bullet, we're gonna lose her." He said to Luka and Ray who looked at each other and Carter nervously. They'd lost patients before but this was a cop, it wouldn't be right or fair to lose her.

"Hey, how is she?" Detective Harper asked a passing Lydia. "Is she all right?"

"She will be." She assured him unconvincingly as she ran back into the Trauma. "Running two units."

"Is she conscious?" Harper said entering the room, ignoring Lydia's words that Karen would be fine.

"She's Hypotensive with 2 GSWs..." Ray started to explain as Carter pulled out one bullet from her chest. "..Strike my last, 1 GSW to-"

"Is she conscious?" Harper shouted agian nearly hitting Ray.

"Get him out of here, Neela, now, please." Luka asked angrily but as nicely as possibly and Neela listened. She walked up to Harper and pulled his arm, leading him out of the Trauma.

"You can't do this to me!" He shouted back as Neela had to push him out and closed the doors while security pulled him away. "I'm her partner!"

"She's responding to Fluid Resuscitation." Sam said from a monitor. Karen's BP and Pulse Ox went up and down from good to bad like it was nobody's business. Just when things looked good, things got worse.

"Pressure's up to 90 PALP." Lydia said handing Luka what he needed. "Pulse Ox is 83."

"Ten-Blade." Carter ordered as he looked around for the second bullet.

"Toes are down going, that means no Spinal injury." Ray said to Carter and Luka. "Hang the next two units on the Infuser."

"Hold on, it's not set up." Haleh said as she moved to do so.

"Get it set up!" Ray ordered angrily that it wasn't already done.

"I got it." Sam said exiting to find the tubing. She was nearly run over by another Trauma led by Susan going next to them when she found what she was looking for. "Got it." She said holding up the tubing and passing it to Ray.

"Second unit is in." Luka said as he moved calmly as the monitors weren't beeping rapidly anymore.

"Pressure's up to 100 Systolic." Lydia informed him..

"Give a gram of Cotetan." He told her.

"Right and left pupils are 5 millimeters and reactive." Ray said taking down her information on her chart for Carter and Luka.

"BP's down to 81 PALP." Haleh informed over the now beeping machines. Luka cursed under his breath as they strapped Karen down to keep her from soon going into seizsures. They ordered amps of Eppy, Morphene for her pain and a heavy sedative to get her to sleep. Hopefully, that would be enough to stop the Seizures and give them time to find the second MIA bullet.

"What's the Pulse Ox?" Ray asked Haleh and she was about to respond when Carter jumped in.

"Doesn't matter right now! Hook up the Thoraseal!" She nodded and did as she was told as Carter ordered Ray to get back to work. "Come people, let's move! We're losing her!"

_**Chapter 2: The Initial Shock**_

**Preview:** After the operation...


	2. The Initial Shock

**_A/N: _**Wrote this on a whim when I got home when it came to me during my walk home. As we all know, I don't own the characters. The only characters I own are Karen and Harper. Enjoy! Thanx for all the reviews!

Samyo: Thanx! It took me forever to compile all the Medical terms and stuff.

Anarra: Karen and Harper are not from L&O: SVU. They're just two characters I created who are SVU Detectives.

Cartergal131: Happy to see you're reading my other ER fics. As for the connection, read on...

_**Chapter 2: The Initial Shock**_

The operation went on for about another 45 minutes before they got her stablized. Harper had been antsy the whole time and was wired from all the coffee he'd drank. When Carter finally came and got him in chairs, his hands were shaking and Carter wasn't sure if Karen would be safe with her partner in his current condition. But, according to him, he was her parnter and he had to trust him. They walked down the hall and upon entering the room, Harper looked at Karen and while his eyes grew misty she just showed him her smiling face. Walking over to her bedside, the two automatically slipped into their routine.

"Hey, there. How do you feel?" He asked sitting in a chair next to her bed. Sam had just left the room after handing the chart to Carter and refilling her IV Drip.

"Like I've been shot." She joked in response getting her a chuckle. "You?"

"Like I've had too much to caffenine. Look." He held up his shaking hand to show her with a laugh. "Can't keep it steady. Won't be of any use in the morning."

"Aw, too bad. You'll just have to stay here with me." She smiled groggily at him.

"Yeah, right. That'll keep me on the Captain's good side."

"He has a good side?" She asked surprised. "I never knew that. So...hey, is this Morphine?" She said to the other tube in her arm. He nodded with concern. He was about to ask her if it was bothering her but she stopped him with another smile. "I don't hate it." He laughed at her and knew it was the drug talking.

"You have Dr. Carter to thank for that." He said standing up and pulling Carter closer to the bed. "If it weren't for him and the others, you'd be in the Morgue right now and I'd be performing an investigation."

"Dr. John Carter?" She asked with more suspicion than anything. He just nodded a little surprised.

"Yes, do I know you?" Karen sat up in her bed gently and shook her head.

"No, not personally...but I know you." She gave a wince of pain and put her hand to her stomach where she'd been shot. "Oh, God dammit! Could you come here for a second, doctor?"

"Sure. Not a problem. What's wrong?" He asked sitting down on the chair and examining her stomach.

"Nothing..." She said with a small smile before puching Carter, sending him to the floor covering his slightly bloody nose. Harper kneeled down and helped him to his feet in complete shock at his partner's actions. "...Now." Harper helped the doctor out of the room and handed him off to a passing nurse before he went back inside to yell at his partner.

"What did you do?" Ray asked coming up behind Carter laughing; not letting on that he'd seen the whole thing.

"She clocked me." He replied less than enthusiastic.

"Why did she do that?" He asked as he flipped through Karen's chart while Carter looked inside the room. Harper was arguing with Karen and she just sat there, annoyed with him, explaining her actions most likely.

"Don't know, but I'm gonna find out." As Carter was about to walk inside, Harper came out and sighed.

"I'm _so_ sorry, Dr. Carter." He said sincerely, leading them away from her room. "Karen, uh...well, she doesn't like you."

"I kinda figured that." He said rubbing his chin. "Mind telling me why?"

"She just told me and made me swear not to, but, uh...I think you deserve to know. There some place we can go away from...uh, all these people?"

"We could go to the Lounge." Ray offered and he opened the door for both Carter and Harper.

"All right. Karen told me that she had a cousin who died in this hospital a few years back." Harper said with a sigh as Ray poured himself a cup of coffee.

"Her cousin? How long ago?" Ray asked after pouring another cup and handing it to Harper.

"About 5 years." He said sitting down and looking up at both of them. "She was a Med Student a few months from graduating."

"Geez!" Ray said getting a little depressed at the news. "Who was she?"

"Uh...God! My memories for shit!" He shouted putting his free hand on his furrowed brow. "Karen talked about her all the time. What was her name?"

"Lucy." Carter said silently. "Lucy Knight." He got up and began to pace, rubbing his chin again.

"Yeah, that's it." Harper said pointing at him. "How'd you know?"

"She was _my_ Med student." He said before leaving the Lounge and going back to Karen's room.

_**Chapter 3: The Initial Damage**_

**Preview: **Carter and Karen have a "heart-to-heart."


	3. The Initial Damage

**_A/N: _**Wrote this on a whim when I got home when it came to me during my walk home. As we all know, I don't own the characters. The only characters I own are Karen and Harper. Thanx for the reviews! I'm shocked this has gone over so well!

Icefemina: Don't get the wrong idea, I just chose the name Harper cause one of my ma's old ex's was cop and that was his name. You can picture Gordon Michael Woolvett if you want but this Harper and _Andromeda_ Harper are not the same. I'm the same with the whole "Things-with-Harper-sucking-me-in" thing.

AnnaSun: Thanx!

Sky Spade: Thanx and here's more, per your request!

Samyo: In all honesty, I didn't want either one of them to die but someone had to. It just sucked that it had to be her! Paul Sobriki couldn't have gone after, say, Abby or Weaver? Thanx for you r blessing too.

Cartergal131: I thought Carter deserved to get hit by Lucy's pissed off cousin. She doesn't know the whole story, his side anyway, and she needed to release her 5 years of pent up tension.

Fox of the Nova: If you don't get _ER_, how do you know about it? Just thought I'd ask cause if it was me, I wouldn't have bothered to read fanfics about a medical show. (but I'm a junkie for _ER_.)

flying dutch(wo)man: Here's more, per your request. Love your pen name, btw.

Anarra: Thanx!

_**Chapter 3: The Initial Damage**_

He looked inside and saw he lying with her eyes closed, probably sleeping. Carter didn't notice at first, but she really did look like Lucy. The only really difference between the two was their hair, height and personality. Karen was almost as tall as Carter was with chin length auburn hair and, being a cop, she was very aggressive.

"I can't see you but I know you're there." She said coldly. He lowered his head and chuckled as he walked toward her. She opened her eyes and Carter saw another difference: Lucy's eyes had been green, Karen's were brown. "I guess Harper spilled the beans, huh?"

"Yeah, he did." He said sitting down in a chair far from her.

"Why don't you just get the hell out of here, Dr. Carter?" She said sitting up again and facing him. "I don't want hear what you have to say about Lucy or her death. I'm just gonna tell you, since I seem to have your attention, that I think you deserve to burn in hell for what you did."

"And what did I do?" He already knew of course. But he'd gotten over it a while ago and he wanted to hear her say it.

"You killed her, you incompetent jackass. So get the hell out and don't come back." She turned her head away and closed her eyes as tears began to well up. He nodded, got up and left her room. As Carter walked down the hall, his thoughts drifted back to the day Lucy died. It was the wee hours of the morning of February 15, 2000 and while he was in recovery, she was being stitched up and covered on a freezing slab of metal by Romano and Weaver. He'd felt guilty for so long but that drug addiction lead him to the AA meetings where he learned to deal with his guilt.

"Hey, Carter." Ray said coming up to him at Admit desk. "How'd it go?" He didn't know the whole story but Harper told him what Karen had told him and he sympathized with both her and Carter.

"She basically called me an incompetant murdering jackass, then kicked me out of the room. How do you think it went?"

_**Chapter 4: The Initial Step**_

**Preview:** A week later...

**_A/N:_** Short and sweet, sorry. I'll try and make the next chapter longer but this isn't going to be a long fic. I think the next chapter will be the last. Sorry! Don't kill me! Just read other fanfics!


	4. The Initial Step

**_A/N: _**Wrote this on a whim when I got home when it came to me during my walk home. As we all know, I don't own the characters. The only characters I own are Karen and Harper. Enjoy! Thanx for the reviews all!

Samyo: Thankies!

Cartergal131: Thanx! I was so worried that Karen's "anger" didn't get across.

_**Chapter 4: The Initial Step**_

A week later...

Carter hadn't seen Karen since her discharge. A discharge which she made sure was far from him. But he'd been too busy though with his 15 minutes of fame on the 6 o'clock News and Susan busting his chops about it to worry about Karen. He'd done the right thing by making a statement on Zarictal on the news. He'd probably saved some lives from the same torture that Gabriel, Katie and Hannah Milner went through. He was sitting outside now, contemplating the past few days when he heard the Ambulance sirens in the distance. He looked up to see if he could spot the lights but found Detective Karen McKay instead.

"Detective McKay." Carter said with mock surprise standing up. "Can I help you?" He asked rhetorically and rudely as he started to head inside.

"I deserve that. After what I did to you, I don't deserve to even be here right now but...I just got off and I wanted to apologize." He stopped and turned to face her skeptically.

"It's not necessary." He lied as he walked toward the bench to sit down again. "But it is appreciated."

"I really am sorry-for everything." She said walking over to him but not sitting down. Karen just stood in front of him with her hands in her coat pocket, practically avoiding his eyes. "I don't blame you for Lucy's death. I don't know why I even cared. We weren't that close."

"Karen, you don't have to explain." He stated simply with very little simpathy in his voice.

"I don't _have_ to, but I _want_ to." She said finally staring him in his eyes. Carter nodded respectfully and offered her a seat next to him which she reluctantly took. "You see, growing up, Lucy and I _always _butted heads." She said chuckling and smiling wistfully. "Even though we always fought, I could always count on her-like a sister of sorts. I hated her, too. I hated her _so much _then, but...now...I was on my 3rd year of college as a lost, undelcared major when I found out she died." She admitted a little embarassed. "Her death hit me hard, you know?"

"Yeah, I know." He replied sadly, as he looked up at the sky. Karen cursed herself and looked at the sky, too. _Of course he knows, dumbass! He was there! _

"Anyway...her death put things into perspective for me. I decided that if I couldn't save her, then I'd save others." She stated proudly before adding onto it with a hit of laughter. "In a way that would require force so I could get my point across easily without trouble. Um, Lucy, uh...she helped me to become a cop, she helped me make that choice. And even though she's gone, in some small way, I can still feel her, you know? Almost as if she's guiding me." Carter looked down at her a little taken aback my her statement and the two were silent for a moment. "That must sound pretty morbid, right? Call a Pysch Consult." She said laughing at herself, bringing her head down to wipe her eyes free of the small tears that dangled ever so lightly.

"No, not at all." She looked at him and the two just smiled at each other for a while in the winter air. When the Ambulance finally showed, the two shook the others hand and parted. Karen said she'd drop by once in a while, but more often than not it would be on a case. She left, alone, into the night and Carter went back to work a little happier. Both of them had got the comfort, in some way, they needed and never recieved after 5 years of agony and pain.

**_A/N:_** Sorry, but this is the last chapter. It wasn't meant to be long anyway. If anyone wants to use Karen or even Harper in a fic of their own, email me and I'll send you a character profile.


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